Given the situation with TikTok—marked by censorship and the app's recent control by MAGA-aligned interests—I checked Reddit to see what TikTok users are saying. It turns out many are asking for alternatives. Most replies suggest other proprietary apps, and I haven’t seen any recommendations for decentralized platforms like LOOPS and others from the Fediverse.

In my opinion, we now have a small but critical window of opportunity to introduce people to the Fediverse. We need to go where young people are—Reddit, Instagram, or whatever platforms they use—and explain the basics of decentralization and why choosing another proprietary app will only lead to the same outcome. LOOPS is easy to join and feels exactly like Tiktok.

I had the chance to discuss this topic with my college students just last semester. Young people are not the “imbeciles” mainstream media often portrays them to be. They see what’s happening and want to participate in change. I am firmly convinced that they are a key component of the social revolution we need, and that with their help, we could dismantle the GAFAM economy in just a few weeks.

So I believe we have to seize this moment: share, explain, and promote the Fediverse wherever you can—especially in the coming days—because every invitation is a step toward a truly free and user-owned internet.

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[–] cinoreus@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago (4 children)

Truth is, fediverse's more fragile than people wanna Admit, that's my opinion from using it for a week. Firstly, everything works on grants and donations, there's no for profit model that's running these servers. That's bad because running social media is expensive.

Second fediverse's still utility first, user experience second priority. there's no recommendation algorithm on mastodon or most other fediverse servers.

Third, this is coming from a security stand point, fediverse is vulnerable to both centralised architecture, and decentralised architecture attacks.

Also it's just, for 90% of people, if they want to have a website like tiktok, they will just go to tiktok. Especially in case of tiktok. Very few people want to try stuff that's not as fully baked as corporate owned social media

[–] HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth 2 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

Everything you said was spot on, and all of it is by design. The engineers and operators of the fediverse intentionally built their systems to be community-funded, algorithm-free, oriented around the tech-savvy, and otherwise deliberately eschewing the design principles behind corpo social media. None of that was an accident, it was the whole point.

So for people asking "when is the fediverse gonna create a competitor to tik tok" the answer is "never" because it was never its intent to do that. The friction is a feature, not a bug.

[–] cinoreus@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, without a recommendation engine, or a for profit model, fediverse is destined to stay an enthusiast space.

[–] HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Which to be honest? Is totally fine with me. Re-diversifying the Internet is a good thing.

[–] cinoreus@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

I mean, I too prefer being on lemmy over reddit. I was just wondering about the EUs current push for open source alternatives, if they can ever succeed in their pursuit.

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